Language : Isreal

The contemporary Hebrew language was created from biblical Hebrew by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, who compiled the first modem dictionary in the 1920s. In a surpris-; ingly short period the revived biblical dialect matured to a full-fledged language, spanning from colloquial speech to poetry. “While a Semitic language in structure (like Arabic), modern Hebrew contains elements of many other European Ian- j guages; many words for which no equivalent biblical concept exists, such aspsyko-fagia (psychology), or cassetta (cassette), have been lifted almost intact.

Most Israelis speak some English, and signs are usually written in English (and sometimes Russian) as well as Hebrew and Arabic, the official languages of Israel. You may want to learn a few Hebrew phrases; the best phrasebooks are the Dover publication Say It in Hebrew and Berlitz Hebrew for Travelers (both about US$5).
The appendix of this book contains a list of useful Hebrew words and phrases.